Tommy Chong on Trump, pot and finally being mainstream

Nowadays, it's kids and grandkids of their original fans who come out to hear classic routines like "Santa Claus and His Old Lady" and the immortal "Dave's Not Here." Their "Get It Legal" tour stops on Aug. 11 at The Eagle Mountain Casino.
Wochit

Tommy Chong (L) and Cheech Marin of the comedy duo Cheech & Chong will be at The Capitol Theatre for the 40th anniversary of "Up in Smoke."(Photo: Ethan Miller, Getty Images)

It could be a coincidence that Cheech and Chong will be at Port Chester’s Capitol Theatre on April 20, the day considered an international cannabis holiday.

But it’s probably not.

After all, what’s more closely associated with the spirit of “420” — a celebration that supposedly evolved from 4:20 p.m., the time some California high school students gathered for their daily smoke-ins in the '70s — than Cheech and Chong?

The duo — Richard “Cheech” Marin, a Los Angeles-born Mexican-American, and Tommy Chong, Canadian-American of mixed Chinese ancestry — have used their comedic skills, ethnic backgrounds, and pot-loving lifestyles since 1971 to create a smoke-filled brand long before branding was a thing.

A still from the Cheech and Chong movie "Up in Smoke."(Photo: Courtesy of Paramount)

Their comedy may have the fans rolling in the aisles, but lighting up is a different matter, the pair’s team warns:

“We welcome fans to see ‘Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke Comedy Concert,’ which includes sketches, original songs, storytelling, and stand-up comedy. However, please be advised that per The Capitol Theatre policy, NO SMOKING or use of electronic cigarettes or vapes will be permitted inside the Theatre, and violators of this policy will be ejected.”

Tommy Chong(Photo: Submitted)

Hearing that makes Tommy Chong chuckle.

“Thank God for the car ride to the show,” he says by phone from his home in the Pacific Palisades section of Los Angeles.

“We prefer for them not to smoke anyway,” he adds, “because our show is something that is, you know, like a show. You want to sit there and enjoy it and be a part of it, in a very, civilized manner.

“We’re not the wild gang guys anymore. We’re very sophisticated,” he adds with a knowing tone.

Cheech and Chong’s current tour celebrates the 40th anniversary of their first movie, “Up In Smoke.”

Cheech and Chong's movie "Up in Smoke" marks its 40th anniversary in 2018.(Photo: Courtesy of Paramount)

It was re-released April 10 by Paramount Home Media in a special Blu-ray edition that includes a mini-documentary. A second deluxe version — complete with the original soundtrack and a new version of the title song on CD and vinyl — comes out the day of the Capitol gig.

“Up In Smoke” earned its place in movie history by creating a whole new genre: the stoner comedy. In fact, Chong’s character, known best simply as “Man,” was actually named Anthony Stoner.

The plot, such as it is, involves the fateful, chance meeting between Chong’s Stoner and Cheech’s Chicano character, Pedro de Pacas, and features family drama, youthful rebellion, rock ‘n’ roll, deportation, and run-ins with the police over a van made, improbably, of pot — all in service to a narrative driven by the desire to get and smoke pot.

Relevant in Trump era

“We weren’t even sure we had a movie when we made it,” Chong says. “Then, the next thing you know, it’s 40 years later and we’re talking about it. So, yeah, it’s quite a shock.”

But Chong knows exactly why the film endures.

“It’s still relevant,” he says, in an era of increasing legalization of marijuana — “it was always medicine,” he says — and the nation’s growing focus on immigration issues under President Donald Trump.

“It weird, you know. I just watched Trump doing his thing on immigration. That was one of the core pieces of the movie, where we get deported,” Chong says. “The same dynamics have not changed. It is crazy!”

He also claims that in the movie “we showed how innocent marijuana really is and how much of a racial excuse it was for the cops and for the establishment. It was just an excuse to harass hippies and black people, and brown people.”

Life for Cheech and Chong is different today than when they met in Chong’s native Vancouver, British Columbia, in the late 1960s. It was at the height of the Vietnam War, and Cheech moved to Canada to avoid being drafted.

Back then, they were the image of the tie-dyed T-shirt and headband-wearing countercultural hippies. While they haven’t abandoned the look, they’re no longer on the fringes.

Finally mainstream?

“We’ve become mainstream,” says Chong. “The old hippies are the cultural warriors now. Like myself — I’m sitting talking to you in one of the richest neighborhoods in the world, in Pacific Palisade. I’m watching a house get built across the street that’s gonna be worth up to $50 million.

Tommy Chong(Photo: Submitted)

“And I represent the marijuana industry because I’m sitting there with all the rest of these billionaires,” adds the man who runs a business empire that markets cannabis products in states where they are legal, and glass bongs for smoking it.

“We’ve come full circle. We went from being outlaws to being the law-abiding citizens now.”

But the lure of getting fans to laugh at their gags has kept Cheech and Chong on the road regularly since they reunited in 2008 after a two-decade split.

Their show “has evolved into a play,” he says. “We basically do the same material every night.”

“There are times in the show where I can stretch out and where Cheech can stretch out, you know, where we do our individual standups. And then I’ll touch on current subjects. But, basically, we’re doing material that we started out with. We’re doing material like ‘Dave’s Not Here,’ which was the first bit that we ever recorded. And it was our biggest hit. So that’s what keeps us going, because it’s so easy, it’s so much fun.”

It’s also a family affair for Chong. His wife, Shelby, opens the show with a routine built on stories about Chong — including his nine-month stint in federal prison in 2003 and 2004 after he pleaded guilty to selling drug paraphernalia — and Cheech. And their son, Paris, is the show’s stage manager and plays bass.

And then there’s the money: “We make a good couple of mil every year, and couldn’t be happier.”

Chong, 79, cautions that if you’ve ever wanted to see him and Cheech perform live, now’s the time.

“I don’t know how much longer we’re gonna be touring. I got an 80th birthday comin’ up,” says Chong, who has cancer and says marijuana “helps me” with its effects. “I would just remind people that, you know, don’t pass up a chance to see us now, because we’re getting close to the finish line.”

Tommy Chong (right) and Cheech Marin of the comedy duo Cheech & Chong will be at The Capitol Theatre for the 40th anniversary of "Up in Smoke."(Photo: Submitted)